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Greetings!

We’re back!  We had a great trip to the beach, and instead of coming straight home we went to the far NW corner of North Carolina to spend two nights with Ruthi’s brother and his wife, who have a home near Boone.

This week’s selection of pictures includes some from both those locations in North Carolina, but starts with a couple from locations within walking distance of our condo.  The first image shows a completely artificial waterfall in a nearby development.

This was my first attempt to put a sense of motion into a picture of a waterfall by slowing the shutter down to 1/15 sec., which was about as slow as I could manage hand-held while keeping the rocks reasonably free from motion blur.  In the bottom left hand corner you can see a yellow iris, and picture #2 shows a bunch of similar irises at a different local pond.  I like the color combination of the yellow flowers, the green leaves, and the blue of the water in the background.

 We saw a lot more blue water at the beach!  We have gotten to recognize most of the local fishing boats, but the one shown in picture #3, taken from the deck of our cottage, was new to me.

It is included here for our own Ms. Lewis!  The next picture, #4, was taken just in front of the cottage on an afternoon when the wind had been blowing steadily, driving the dry sand along the beach and creating interesting shapes in the lee of each piece of shell or pebble, and the angle of the sun was getting low enough to create interesting shadow patterns, which might almost qualify this as an abstract picture.

 Just a short drive from the cottage, but on the mainland, is our favorite bagel shop.  Picture #5 is of a medium size (approx. one inch wingspan) moth that was resting on the outside of a window.    It is possibly a Large Lace-border (Scopula limboundata).

When we went back a few days later, I noticed the much larger and more spectacular Imperial Moth (Eacles imperialis), a member of the royal silkworm family,  shown in #6, resting on the stone wall of the store!

What amazed me was the number of people who walked right past it without even noticing it.  I showed it to several people who seemed almost as excited as I was to see it.  As we were leaving, I took #7 to show just how exposed its location was, and how people just went by without seeing it!

 The white moth in #5 had been on the window on the right of this picture.

 I do not normally take pictures of captive animals, but I could not resist taking a picture of this Iguana (#8), which we saw at the local farmer’s market!  It was at a booth staffed by someone from a local reptile rescue center.

 While we were in the NW part of the state, we were taken to Linville Falls.  There are actually several waterfalls there, of which #9 is just one.

Unlike picture #1, this was taken at 1/200 sec. shutter speed, so the water does not show so much movement.  It would have been interesting to experiment with a tripod and slower shutter on this one too!  The final image this week, #10, was taken just outside the Linville Falls visitor center.

I do not normally care for orange azaleas, but these were too good to resist, and I chose a viewpoint to contrast them with the dark green background.

 Have a great week!